Bailiff Comments

Week Commencing: Sat 19/05/2018

Well the weather has certainly taken a turn for the better, with sustained warm conditions throughout the week. Long sunny days, and warm overnight temperatures saw the water temperature rise to 19 degrees. With a few rumbles of thunder, and a couple of rain showers, it was typically Spring. This week we had twelve anglers on, of which, ten were first time visitors to the Road Lake.

Only getting back into carp fishing in the last couple of years, Jay Wallis had no hesitation in selecting the in-form Turtle Corner. To say he was happy bunny would be an understatement. There were a large group of fish out in front which provided an amazing show at dawn on a morning. He started off fishing Wafters on Heli-Safes straight out in front and baited lightly with the throwing stick, using Sticky Baits Krill and Manilla. He picked up a couple of fish on Sunday and Monday, but hadn’t quite nailed down the baiting strategy (which is so important on the Road Lake). Following the advice of Andy the bailiff, he upped the anti, and soon got into a routine of baiting up on a morning and afternoon with the Spomb to get a bed of bait established, and then topped up with the throwing stick in between. This tactic heralded a change in fortunes and he started picking off fish regularly. A change to yellow pop-ups on a simple running rig seemed to help the fish pick out the hookbait much quicker. In a brilliant weeks fishing he went on to land 27 fish including a fifty and two forties. He used 50kg of bait during the week, which he introduced with the Spomb, as the fish were really homing in on it.

First out of the draw was Simon Regan who went into Tea Party 1, which had produced an incredible 62 fish haul the previous week. Taking his time to get underway, Simon had to wait until Sunday morning before one of his rods ripped off, and his reward was a beautiful 44lb Common, which he named Jam Boy. A new PB by over 20lb, Simon was over the moon. He followed this up with another 40lb fish the next morning and fished different areas in the swim to try and tempt more bites, but unfortunately, this tactic rarely pays dividends. A concentration of bait, with the rods fished tight is usually the winning tactic. He ended his week with two 40lb fish, so was quite rightly, a happy chappy. 

Jordan Lane fancied a dabble in Billy’s and with a few fish seen along the margins, the obvious area to concentrate on was the overhanging tree at 17 wraps. He started off fishing two rods towards the tree and one in open water and unfortunately suffered a couple of lost fish before landing a lovely mid 36lb Mirror on Monday. That heralded the better fortunes and he had action nearly every night for the rest of the week. He was baiting from the margin with chopped and whole boilie and fishing a simple running rig with a CC Moore Wafter on an IQ D-Rig. He landed a new PB Common on Friday morning, when the Korda Social Common made a mistake, and tipped the scales to 42lb. Good angling Jordan. 

Andrew Wallis went into big fish country, and chose The Poo. Following the advice of the Bailiff, he fished down the right hand side of the swim and baited up with 2-3 kg each day. After a slow start, Andy picked up a fish on Monday night, and credit to him, he stuck to his guns for the remainder of the week. Friday morning brought another bite, which he landed, resulting in a pretty double figure Mirror. He fished with a standard running rig, and a Multi Rig and a Krill Wafter. With his brother Jay having a few fish, Andy spent a couple of evenings in Turtles and helped himself to a lovely 37lb Mirror. 

Rob Collins chose the Beach to spend the week in, and went across towards the bund with two rods and fished one in the little fished left hand corner, to try and trip up a biggun’. After casting across he baited by hand from the bund with a couple of kilos of boilie, to keep things tight. Unfortunately, he suffered a couple of dropped fish before landing one of the few Grassies at 22lb and another 20 pounder at last knockings. His bites all came to a White Cell Pop-Up fished on a Multi Rig. 

Steve Jackson started off on Saturday fishing in Brambles, but made the decision early on Sunday morning, to move across into The Cage which is a great spring swim. He fished one rod right into the corner, one to the weed bed and the other straight out in front. Over the next three days he had four bites, but unfortunately disaster struck on each occasion, with either a hook-pull, or getting stuck in weed. He had a morning in the newly created stalking swim towards the end of the week and picked up a mid twenty Common on a Peaches & Cream Pop-Up fished on a running rig.

Josh Lawrence went into Double Boards for the week and set his stall out to fish the mid area of the lake at 14 wraps towards TP1. He baited up with CC Moore Live System and fished simple running rigs over the top. The fish had grouped on the Turtles treeline and just didn’t come out far enough for him to catch them. To maximise his chances, Josh took advantage of the stalking swim, and picked up four fish, including a beautiful 34lb Common. 

Murray Harkness plotted up in Bacheliers for the week, and set about the task of extracting a couple from the marginal area. He fished two rods across to the large tree at 22 wraps, and one down to his left hand margin. He was baiting up with a couple of kilos of Mainline Cell and Essential Cell each day, which he glazed with oils. On Monday morning, fish started showing across the far side of the swim, and sure enough, on Monday night Murray had his first bite, which unfortunately dropped off. Disaster struck twice more, before he finally got his man; landing a pretty 30lb 4oz Common. The fish fell for a Cell Wafter fished on a running rig.

In a week where the fish grouped up for spawning, a creditable 43 fish were landed around the lake. The next few weeks, post spawning will no doubt see the fish spread out a bit more, and seriously get on the munch. Until then....

Bonne Peche 

Andy

Team Gigantica